Summary: Mikan tries to write a story. Everybody said her story sucked. Hurt and desperate, she turned to her partner, the writing guru in class Natsume Hyuuga! But will the feisty dangerous ability type help her? NxM one-shot.
Author's Notes: During my classmate's report on the different reader-response approach in interpreting literature, I suddenly imagined Mikan trying to write a story of her own. That's when this idea hit me. Here's a short and simple one-shot NxM fic. It's a bit rushed…so I would truly appreciate it if you spot any errors. Love yah!
Reminder: Mikan will be having a lot of trouble with her grammar so expect loads of grammatical errors in anything she writes. It's part of the fanfic. Natsume will become OOC, you'll see why. XD Thanks!--------------------------------------------------------------o
Natsume, Mikan, and Her Bad Grammar
Genre: Humor / Romance
Written By: WizdomGoddess
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Mikan Sakura slumped on her desk. This is terrible!
The repetitious tapping of her pen against the wooden surface rang louder than ever. This was probably the nth time she erased and corrected one measly sentence. Why does writing have to be so difficult? She had numerous ideas yet it was so hard to put her thoughts on paper. As an end result, her thoughts were in frenzy. 'Gah! I can't think of anything anymore!' she whined silently. She barely even finished one paragraph! What should she do?
Writing her own fiction was turning out to be more complicated than she imagined.
"Mikan! What are you doing?" two female voices sang.
Urk… Nonoko! Anna! Kami, not them!
Indeed, Nonoko and Anna were peering at her unfinished masterpiece---at least they tried to peek---until Mikan turned the paper upside down and shot them an innocent look. The girls stared at each other. A few blurs passed by, the sound of chairs rasped against the floor, and the chat of their classmates suddenly seemed far away.
"…"
"…"
Nonoko and Anna looked at each other. Mikan was definitely hiding something. But what could it be?
"What's that?" Nonoko snooped, pointing at the inverted piece of paper sticking out from under Mikan's folded arms.
"Nothing!" Mikan replied quickly.
"Then why are you hiding it?" Anna asked.
Both girls were now excessively curious. Whatever their friend was hiding, it was obviously off-limits. Given that, boy did they want to find out what it was even more!
Mikan lifted her arms and pulled the sheet closer to her body so she could cover it better. She folded her arms yet again and placed them over the paper. She did all this without breaking eye contact with Nonoko and Anna.
"Am I hiding anything? I'm not hiding anything! Hahaha!" Mikan laughed nervously, pretending to be clueless.
"Yes you are!" Nonoko exclaimed.
"It's that paper you're hiding!"
"Paper? What paper?"
Another female voice interrupted their conversation "What is going on here?"
"Sumire!"
Mikan heaved, wishing a hole would magically appear so she could crawl into it. She looked pleadingly at Anna and Nonoko, conveying her request not to tell Sumire about their 'little' hubbub. Unfortunately, the two girls had their eyes fixed on Sumire and not her.
"Mikan's hiding a paper from us," Anna explained, eyes sparkling dangerously.
"We don't know what it is but it looks really important!" Nonoko added, clapping her hands over her mouth.
Sumire turned to the glowering Mikan with a twisted grin. A few minutes ago she was downright bored, but Mikan has always been convenient during these dull times. She liked Mikan though it may not seem so; in fact, the only thing she disliked about the girl was the way she stuck around her Natsume and Ruka. Other than that, Sumire thought Mikan was quite an interesting person---not to mention fun to tease---the very thing she intended to do that very minute.
"Keeping secrets now are we, Sakura-san?" Sumire sneered.
"No I'm not!" Mikan pouted.
Sumire transformed into her cat-dog state. "You should know by now you can't fool me! I can smell your lie!"
"AIEEEEEEE!"
Mikan grabbed the paper and scampered from her desk, ran towards the teacher's table, and climbed on top of it.
"No! Permy! Stop! Sit! Staaaaay!" she ordered, shooing the approaching cat-dog Sumire away with her foot. A few boys snickered from this comical gesture.
"Quit calling me Permy!" Sumire barked, "And don't treat me like a dog!"
By this time, their noisy dispute caught the attention of all their classmates. Nonoko and Anna seemed to have informed their classmates that Mikan was hiding an "important document" from everyone. Naturally, they became equally intrigued. A few girls from the Natsume and Ruka fansclub started cheering for Sumire.
Everybody was busy watching the two girls that nobody noticed Hotaru and Yuu enter the classroom---except Mikan, not that it's surprising; the girl can sniff Hotaru from a mile away.
"HOTAAARUUU! YUUUUU! SAAAVE MEEEEE!" she squealed.
Yuu faltered on his tracks. He disappeared for only a few minutes and the class was already in turmoil? What a pain in the…he shook the nasty thoughts away. He was Yuu Tobita, the class president! He won't surrender to their delinquencies! Yuu believed his mischievous classmates had well-behaved hearts, somewhere really deep inside them and he will not stop until they realized their potential.
He walked towards Mikan and Sumire, followed closely by an expressionless Hotaru.
"What's the problem here? Shoda? Sakura?" Yuu asked, stopping a fair distance away from the battle zone.
"Iinchou! Mikan's got a secret!" Sumire explained.
"Secret? Why do you want to know her secret?" Yuu replied, looking confused. "Don't you think it's not right to force her to tell you?"
"Hotaru! Help me!" Mikan screamed.
"If you want me to help you, it'll cost you 100 rabbits." Hotaru yawned. A small curve formed at the corner of her lips. Mikan instantly knew her best friend was enjoying every minute of her dilemma.
"Hotaru! How can you be so selfish?" Mikan demanded.
Mikan jumped from the teacher's table and ran towards Yuu. She hid behind him and stuck out her tongue at Sumire, who hissed at her. "I won't let you get your hands on my paper!" she said. Mikan was on the verge of crumpling it when she realized her hands contained nothing but air: she was empty-handed.
She frantically searched every hole in her uniform but the paper was already lost. 'This is bad!' she whined subconsciously.
"Looking for this?" Hotaru announced, waving a familiar paper in the air.
"HOTARU!" Mikan wailed, trying to grab the paper from Hotaru's hand. "How did you get that?"
"It was easy with you distracted and all," Hotaru answered, dodging her attempts by keeping the paper out of her reach. Without further ado, Hotaru whipped out her "baka" gun and shot her persistent best friend.
"Hoooootaaaaaaruuuuuuuuuu!"
"Ahh! Hotaru! You overdid it!" Yuu cried, running towards the decrepit Mikan squashed against the wall. "Mikan! Are you okay?"
"Hotaru…you traitor…" Mikan stuttered. Her body slid against the wall and wilted on the floor.
Yuu sweated. "Apparently not…"
"Now let's see…what have we here…" Hotaru murmured, straightening out the tattered paper and read the contents. Both her brows shot up higher than her forehead. "What the heck is this?"
Kokoroyomi popped up beside Hotaru. "Read it aloud, Imai-san!" he chirped.
"Good idea!" Sumire urged.
"I've got a better idea. I'll use this instead…" Hotaru suggested, pulling out a strange rectangular device with a big push-button on top of it. She pressed the button and the device transformed into an overhead projector. "…Invention Number 560, the All Around Overhead Projector. No need for transparencies since it produces a clear 3-D hologram of an object placed on top of it."
"HOTARU! NOOOOO!" Mikan cried out. She probably would have jumped for her paper if Kokoroyomi and Sumire weren't restraining her.
Hotaru smirked and carefully placed the paper on the projector. All eyes turned to the gigantic image replicating the contents projected in midair. On the paper was a story written by none other than Mikan:
(Mikan's Original Story)
Once upon a time, in a long time ago, there leaved a preety princess named Minka. Minka was a princess because she was royal blood and her mother and her father are the king and queen of an spooky castle inside a kingdom at a country. Once a day the princes went up a hill to watch at clouds and sees the standing handsome prince that stand there. "Hi my name is Prince Rabbit," said Prince Rabbit. He smiled at Princes Minka which smiled back.
"We're engaged right?"
"Yes."
"I wish our parents didn't engaged us," Princes Minka said and was sad; She is still 10 but she know that her parents love her but she wish they didn't engaged her to some prince!
"But I'm glad it's you," said the princess, and smiled. "Because your kind and I like you."
The prince laughed and said. "I know. I like you're smile!" They held hands and lived happily ever after.
But then a dragon came then kidnap the princess.
(End of Unfinished story)
Deathly silence propagated in the classroom.
Sumire was the first to break it.
"BWAHAHAHAHA! YOUR STORY SUCKS SAKURAAAAAAAAAA!" she laughed hysterically. In a matter of seconds, she was already rolling on the floor with arms clutching her stomach.
"Oh my god…th-the g-grammar…" Anna stammered. Nonoko blew up her cheeks and her hand instantly flew to cover her mouth.
"Hahahaha, I have never heard of 'preety' before!" a male classmate hollered turning to his friend. "Have you?"
"Nope!" his friend replied slyly. He winked at the girl next to him. "Have you?"
"Naaaaah."
All three burst out laughing, simultaneously followed by the rest of their classmates.
"Dang, you should ask someone to tutor you Sakura!"
"Your idiocy cracks me up!"
"You suuuuuck!"
"Stop laughing you guys!" Yuu scolded, though it didn't help that his voice cracked.
Mikan growled, her cheeks flushing. The whole surface area of her body glowed red. She had never been this embarrassed in her life. How could Hotaru do this to her!
"DON'T MAKE FUN OF ME!" she bawled, slamming her fist on the nearest table. This caused everyone to laugh louder; even the fan-girls barely noticed Natsume and Ruka appear in the doorway.
"Why is everybody laughing?" Ruka asked curiously. The bunny cuddled on his arms leapt towards his shoulders and buried its ears against his collar.
Kokoroyomi who seemed to have difficulty breathing, pointed at the image hovering in the middle of the classroom. "That…Mikan's writing…" he panted and collapsed beside Sumire on the floor.
Ruka glanced at Mikan, feeling sorry that she had to be ridiculed by their classmates. Though his instinct told him to help her, he was far too afraid that his true feelings for her might show up. He sent a comforting smile in her direction instead. Mikan bit her lip and slouched on her chair.
Yuu rushed over and tried his best to comfort her.
"Look on the bright side Mikan!" he conjured up his jolliest of tones. "At least they're cleaning the floor for you. You won't have a hard time in your cleaning duties later!"
"Thanks for trying but it's not helping…." Mikan mumbled. She banged her forehead on the table and weakly gave Natsume a pleading look. He received the message and sighed.
"TCH. TOO NOISY," he grumbled.
All eyes turned to Natsume and the laughter slowly died down. The fire-alice wielder stalked towards the image and read the story quietly. When he finished, he buried his hands in his pockets and tore his gaze away from the hologram.
"Polka-dots," he began, "Try writing again. You can do better than this."
Ruka was surprised. He had expected Natsume to at least make a nasty comment or two, but he seemed to have no intention of making her look bad like he usually did.
"Natsume…" he managed to say.
"But Natsume…!" Sumire complained.
"…" said the class.
Yuu sighed in relief, at least he was rest assured the class will calm down now that Natsume took Mikan's side.
"Natsume! Thank you for believing in me!" Mikan squealed delightfully. "I owe you one!"
Natsume shrugged indifferently. "Change the name of your prince to Prince Black C. then I'll forget that you owe me," he replied and the class could only watch him plop down his chair in satisfaction.
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Mikan enjoyed her solitude that afternoon. Deep in thought, she tapped the tip of her pen on her notebook again and again. The word was already at the tip of her tongue but it refused to slip out. What was the word describing an uplift of emotions again?
"OH! Now I remember!" she exclaimed happily, scribbling the word on a small piece of pink paper. She folded the note and sighed dreamily. With a smile, she looked up the sky to watch some clouds float by.
"What are you doing alone out here?"
Mikan blinked and saw Natsume's face hovering over hers; his bangs hung like curtains over his forehead. He sat beside her on the bench, uttering no more. She closed her notebook and laid the pen on top of it. A blush crept over her cheeks.
"I'm writing about my feelings," she replied, revolving her head in his direction. "Do you write about your feelings Natsume?"
His fiery ruby eyes met hers. "No. That's too troublesome."
"I guess that's something to be expected of you," she remarked with a giggle.
"Stop acting like you know me little girl," Natsume frowned.
Mikan pursed her lips. "Well, I don't really know you. But I know you're a good person!" she smiled.
"…"
Natsume decided not to respond and simply looked away. Mikan started entertaining herself by fiddling with her pen. It annoyed him. He was about to tell her to stop but she suddenly spoke up.
"Thanks for your help a while ago," she said, her voice a bit shaky. Her cheeks flushed yet again, this time combined with embarrassment.
"It's because you're so stupid," he replied.
"Stop acting like a meanie! I know you don't really mean what you just said!" she protested.
"Oh, so you can read my mind now?"
"That's not it! Um…well…I just wanted to tell you…" Mikan trailed off. She took a deep breath before continuing, "…that I'm really happy that you're my partner." Blushing, she pulled a folded pink paper from her notebook and placed it on his lap. "I'm sorry I bothered you a while ago. Thanks for saving me…."
Natsume stared at the note. "What's this?"
Mikan stood up. "Just a thank you gift!" she said with a sheepish smile. "It's not much since my allowance isn't that big, but I do hope you like it." She beamed radiantly and picked up her bag resting on the ground. "I have to go now! I'm meeting up with Hotaru!"
"Hey."
"Yes?"
"Ask help anytime you like. I don't mind…" he said, almost in a whisper. "…if it's you. Just keep that stupid smile on your face."
Mikan's cheeks turned a brilliant pink. She shook it off and her face lit up. "Thanks Natsume! I feel much better!" she replied with a bright smile. Waving a goodbye, she turned around and ran until she disappeared at the corner of a nearby building.
Natsume watched her vanish then deliberately opened the note:
Dearest Natsume,
Because of you, I now know that I can write a better story! You are my perspiration!
Love always and forever and ever grateful, Mikan
Natsume raised a brow. "Perspiration?" he coughed in disbelief. The girl needed to work on her vocabulary but he was too amused to care at the moment. He checked if there were other people in the area.
With nobody around, Natsume held his stomach and burst out into a series of laughter. "Ahahahaha! That silly girl! CUTE!" he chuckled, tears of mirth forming at the corner of his eyes. His eyes widened. Damn! Did I just say that out loud? Thank god no one's arou…
"Natsume?"
He froze. Oh crap.
Slowly, he turned around. Hotaru stood less than a meter away, jaw hanging open and looking extremely mortified.
"…"
"…"
Natsume cleared his throat and gathered himself. He tried his best to keep a straight face despite the awkward situation. He had to say something – anything.
"Laughing gas," he stated, leaning back against the bench.
"…Right," Hotaru replied, obviously not convinced. She crossed her arms and waited for him to continue.
"Zip it for one thousand rabbits."
Hotaru grinned. "Deal."
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The End.
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Dedications: To every potential fanfic writer out there who wants to share their works on the internet…but too afraid to be humiliated by abusive reviewers. Fear not minna, it's part of being a fanfic writer!
End Notes: Gosh, I'm writing so many one-shots these days. XD Ah well, hope you guys enjoyed it nevertheless. I can't think of a good ending for the second chapter of the horror fic…ah well. Please review, criticisms are welcome. Love yah guys!